Enjoy an alcohol-free New Year’s Eve celebration, with hors d’oeuvres reception and home-cooked dinner, lively concert in the Barn, ice cream social, and midnight candlelight Meeting for Worship.

Through music, wake up to the joys of nature, as Alice Walker advised in The Color Purple. Music brings us back to our roots, opening our souls to Nature. Ever since ink found quills, composers have sought to capture aspects of countryside and cosmos. Maurice Ravel pays homage to fountains, cascades, and brooks. Terry Riley unravels the mysteries of interplanetary travel in “Sun Rings” as performed by the Kronos Quartet with images from NASA. Renaissance composer Thomas Morley portrays a heart ablaze with flames of passion. Come romp through the countryside with Beethoven and sing and dance to Meredith Monk’s “On Behalf of Nature.”

Losing ourselves while contemplating the four elements—earth, wind, sea, and fire — we will rediscover ourselves in music and renew our connection to the cycles and mysteries of life.

Leader(s)

Karl Middleman is a versatile musician, composer, lecturer, and conductor of many choirs and orchestras, including the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, which he founded and directs. Maestro Karl mixes scholarship with showmanship, peppering his lively presentations with musical tales, film clips, and piano demonstrations. A career educator on the faculty of Temple University, Karl is currently also a Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Council on the Humanities.

Financial aid may be available. If you are seeking funds to participate in this program, click to review and complete our Financial Assistance Application and a Pendle Hill staff member will follow-up with you shortly (please do NOT register online). Thank you for your interest.

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